Two months ago Russians were still trying to take Mariupol and Sievierodonetsk. The first one is now taken, and the second is almost taken.
> most military experts agree that further Russian advances are extremely unlikely
Most military experts you are reading maybe. Russia has been slowly and steadily continuing its advance.
You are making assertions all over the place and don't seem to care that you're getting assertion failures from all of them.
Yes, Russians didn't manage to take Kiev or Kharkiv. But that doesn't change the fact that they are making progress in the east and the south. Wars have more than one front.
https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-likely-still-wants-much-... And the thing is even if they conquer Donbas and declare victory that wont end the war since Ukraine will keep fighting to reclaim them.
Russia does not have what it takes to dissuade Ukraine from continuing to fight and they can't sustain the war effort as long, the longer the war goes the larger the Ukrainian military gets and the more hardware from the west it gets while Russia struggles with recruitment and military manufacturing under sanctions.
I know youtube videos from random people are rarely convincing but Perun has a really good one going step by step how Russia is unable to win this war just based on their difficulty with waging a long war. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2ptG1IxZ08